Tutoring Calls
by redolentperfume
Summary: [Currently rewriting chapters] An intelligent student from Tōō Academy signs up to become a math tutor. But, the last person she expected to tutor would be the school's ace basketball player, Daiki Aomine. He was rather dissatisfied with his tutor's appearance, considering her flat chest and bothersome attitude against his indolent mind-set. Aomine/OC
1. Plot

**Tutoring Calls**

**1.**

* * *

"Where is she?"

Mai had been waiting for _twenty_ minutes. The person that she was supposedly going to tutor has not showed up yet, and it has been twenty minutes over the time she expected her to come to the library.

Math was an easy subject to Mai, seeing as her grades are far from average to the point that it almost reached the mark of absolute perfect—a goal that is marked as 'in-progress' in Mai's set of objectives. Moreover, she definitely needed volunteering hours to fill her curriculum, too, and so far she only has _three_ out of forty.

She definitely needed more volunteering hours.

To solve this problem, she decided to sign up to become a math tutor for Tōō Academy. It would earn her countless of volunteering hours, and even a basic review of mathematics for herself, too.

It was her first day as a tutor this Monday afternoon, and Mai was surely excited to begin the tutoring lesson with the anonymous student. Her teacher did not even bother to inform her the student's name or, as she conjectured, did not hear it due to her hearing problems and thus, possibly did not hear the person's name correctly.

And somehow, Mai supposed that the student would be a girl.

At any rate, the student's lateness that she vehemently had to accept made her hypothesize the situation in her head. Either she had forgotten or willingly chose to not attend the tutoring lesson. It was a fifty-fifty chance that either one was true.

Sighing in boredom and distress, she plumped her elbow on the table and let her chin rest on her hand as she still waited for the person to arrive. It did not make sense to her though; the lesson would start fifteen minutes after the final bell rings, so the person shouldn't need _this_ much time to gather her things.

Eventually though, she had to succumb to reality.

Half an hour was too much time—she had wasted _thirty_ minutes of her time pitifully sitting on a library chair as she waited for her. It was too ludicrous.

Before gathering her things (which wouldn't be much of a trouble since she hasn't opened her binder or books yet), Mai took out the plain hairclip out of her waist long, light-brown hair and sealed it back into place to tighten back her long bangs from falling into her face. Shortly after doing so, she disappointedly walked home.

.

.

It was definitely certain that Mai would complain about the first lesson's outcomes to her teacher. This only made her feel embarrassed of herself to just realize that the person is probably laughing as she imagined her tutor waiting for her to come when she wasn't going to.

It was Tuesday of just another week of school. The only thing the students could be worried about is the math test, which will be taking place on next Friday, so they are at ease for the moment until they have to undergo through studying.

"Sensei," Mai voiced away as she calmly stopped in front of her desk before she would begin her class. With a slight frown, she stated, "No one showed up yesterday for their tutoring lessons."

The statement simply made her teacher sigh in disenchantment. Her teacher did not seem surprised though. The person that needed additional assistance was a very troublesome student. The student was recommended a tutor a few _weeks_ prior to this day, but never bothered to willingly ask for help. So, just last week the teacher threatened her student with detention.

Her teacher simply shook her head, asked, although not exactly intending it to be answered, "He did not?" She continued, "I will be taking care of this matter, Mai, so do not fret."

"Thank you."

Mai gave her a short nod and tranquilly went back to her seat, which was located in the far back. At times the farness that her seat beheld from the teacher was slightly difficult for her. Ever since Mai was born, deafness began to take over her ears, and eventually, she was forced to use a hearing aid at a young age.

Just lately her hearing aid seemed to not work properly, and has not been able to repair it just yet. Thus, her impaired hearing is not precisely corrected.

When she finally plumped down onto her seat, Mai realized that the person sitting behind her is not present, which was, in fact, not surprising to her—or to anybody. Mai often sees his seat empty, but never knew the reason behind it. She guessed it was most likely due to his pure laziness and lack of enthusiasm to school.

"Alright, class," the teacher got up from her seat and began to write something on the chalkboard. "Turn to page forty-two of your history textbooks," she added, "Answer questions from one to eight; answers may be found on pages forty-two to forty-seven."

In an instant, most students uninterestedly opened their textbooks and began to turn the pages until they were on the assigned page. Yesterday they were learning about World War II and did not have sufficient time to proceed to the textbook questions. So, they left their schoolwork to the next day as a work period.

Minutes into their work, the door creaks open to appear a tall student who had a frown on his features. It was also a habit of his to come late to class, something which the teacher found discourteous and careless.

Looking up from her work, her teacher stated, "You are late again, Aomine."

The tan-skinned student did not even bother to turn his head to the teacher, but simply turned his slightly squinted eyes to her, which did not form eye contact or whatsoever. He found it dense of her to simply state the complete obvious, something that applied to a lot of his high school days.

Setting his eyes back to the row of desks, Aomine resumed his way back to his seat, but was quickly interrupted by his teacher's voice once again, causing him to faintly sigh in aggravation.

"Aomine, please come to my desk once lunch starts," she told him as she cleared her throat. "I do wish to speak with you."

Almost all eyes were on him, evidently curious to the reasoning behind their teacher's call. They knew the subject would not be a good thing when considering Aomine being involved though, which was fairly true.

Stubborn as ever, Aomine still did not bother to pay enough respect to his teacher. He plainly brought his hand up and carried out a small wave without turning his head back to the teacher, and simply responded, saying, "Sure."

For whatever reason she wanted to speak with him, Aomine was, without a doubt, uninterested. He merely guessed it was something about a missing project or assignment that has already been marked as overdue and he has not handed it in just yet.

Mai looked up from her work upon hearing her teacher's voice, and slightly shook her head at the peculiarly tall student that sits right behind her everyday at school. She didn't appreciate his lack of effort in school and perceptibly his attitude with other people.

Now that she thinks about it, not once in her life she has ever recalled conversing with him. Mai usually finds him absent, skipping class, or sleeping while the teacher is lecturing the class a lesson, so, in summary, she doesn't normally talk to him. The only time they did 'talk' was when he asked her if he could borrow a pencil, something that she definitely did not get back.

When she focused back to her work, Mai couldn't help but notice the large pair of legs under her chair.

It was a habit of his to stretch his legs out to the point her legs were almost handicapped from pulling them back without touching his legs. Mai had been _considering_ on telling him to nicely ask him to pull them away, but his physical appearance made her think otherwise.

Aomine was _tall_—he did not possess the average height of a typical sixteen-year-old. Even if people believed that Mai's height is pretty tall for a girl, the tip of her head only reached to about his upper chest or so.

And she also seemed to forget the fact that her teacher mentioned the student that was absent for the first tutoring lesson as a male.

.

.

It almost made him laugh for completely forgetting the slight chance that his teacher was going to talk to him about his absence during the tutoring lesson. Yes, he did voluntarily skip it, but did not even bat an eye on its consequences.

"Why did you not show up for your tutoring lesson?"

"I didn't want to show up."

Aomine's hands were sucked into his pockets as his features were clearly expressing his annoyance to this tedious conversation. The teacher should at_ least_ be thankful that he did not lie about his reasoning to his absence yesterday.

The older woman sighed and shook her head in disillusionment. She was hoping that the tutoring lessons would help him get through the hard steps in mathematics since he is not doing his homework daily. But if he wasn't going to show up then this would be futile.

"If you do not show up to the following tutoring lessons, you will be sent to detention," she threatened. The only way to actually make someone like Aomine to follow the rules was to go to tremendous measures. And sometimes, they don't even work. "Please show up tomorrow."

His frown worsened and he wordlessly grumbled in discontentment.

Did he want to attend these preposterous tutoring lessons? Absolutely not. Aomine had better things to do rather than being stuck in the school library as he is getting tutored by one of his classmates.

.

.

On the subsequent day, Aomine stayed put on his assigned seat during lunch seeing as he had fallen asleep during the previous class, and was more than grateful to find that the teacher did not find out. Sakurai, his fellow classmate and teammate in the basketball team, was silently nibbling on his lunch along with another friend that pulled his chair out to sit beside him.

Mai, on the other hand, was sitting on her regular seat along with her desk neighbor, Hana. They eventually befriended two weeks after school began, and started talking ever since. Hana was a little shy at first, only speaking little by little each day until she eventually warmed up to Mai.

"Look," Hana stated, slightly smiling in amusement as she looked over at the group of girls on the other side of the classroom. "Seems like they are _finally_ making a move on him."

The group of girls always fancied the tall student who sat behind her. Their liking towards him was almost _too_ obvious considering the fact that they are quite loud when they are 'whispering' to each other. Aomine didn't _seem_ to notice, which is not that surprising. He doesn't care about them at all.

She faintly laughed, saying, "Congratulations to them." Mai placed down her bitten sandwich on the container to grab her juice box. "Honestly, all they do is blabber about him."

Hana nodded in agreement as they both watched a short girl shyly walk towards Aomine. It was a girl with long red hair who had a relatively flirty smile on her face. Mai didn't know why the girl—whose name was Fuyu—decided to speak with him now. The guy was literally asleep with his face on his desk!

When Fuyu finally stopped in front of his desk, Mai, on the corner of her eye, could tell that the short girl was nervous, but clearly did not blame her. She would be edgy as well if it came to a _possible_ confession. Again, she had no idea what Fuyu was doing in the first place. Heck, she might of only came to him to ask for juice.

"Aomine-san," Fuyu said timidly as she pulled her arms behind her back, her body slightly swaying from left to right. After a few seconds, a frown formed on her face as she realized that he didn't hear her—in other words, he didn't wake up to her voice—which wasn't so surprising.

Sakurai did hear her call for his desk neighbor though, and finally spoke up, saying, "Fuyu-chan," he began, his timid eyes shyly looking at his classmate. "H-He's sleeping, so he must of have had not heard you. Sorry."

The girls' green eyes connected with Sakurai's for a short second and nodded in comprehension, but slightly confused to why he apologized. Slowly, her arm reached out to his shoulder to shake him awake, but quickly pulled it back once he heard him say, "Don't."

She blinked twice—or maybe even trice—in astonishment. Fuyu didn't know that he was actually awake or _maybe_ was awakened by her voice. His tone came out low and quite frankly, bothered by someone interrupting his sleep.

Once his sharp, blue eyes slowly opened, Aomine pulled his head up and rested his chin on his hand. He uninterestedly looked at the girl whose eyes were flickering at him, and suddenly found her quite inconvenient—but then found his eyes trailing somewhere else.

Quickly recovering, Fuyu asked, "I was wondering if—"

"No thanks," he interrupted her in a nonchalant tone. "I'm not interested."

Aomine was aware of the girl's intentions and where this conversation was heading into, and certainly, he didn't want to waste any more of his breath towards it. He was conscious of the fact that they had _affectionate_ purposes in their flirtatious minds.

"W-What?"

"You have no breasts," he said matter-of-factly, not batting an eye if the words impacted her harshly or whatsoever. It was true though, Fuyu did not possess large breasts—and some even say she doesn't have any at all; that was a complete exaggeration though.

Mai and Hana were clearly eavesdropping on them—not that they really had a choice anyway. Since they sat right in front of Aomine, it was hard to not listen to his conversations sometimes. Mai couldn't help but feel pity for the short classmate that had just been rejected by the ace basketball player of the school, even though she didn't know why they fancied someone like _him_ in the first place. He was full-out shallow and only cared about appearances when it came to women.

But when she curiously looked down at her own chest, Mai felt a little bit uneasy.

Is that what men thought about her, too?

Surely, Mai didn't know if Aomine's preference also applied to other men, but it made her feel a little bit uncomfortable and intimidated for some reason. And when she deeply thought about it—there was a sign that she felt offended at his indirect words. Aomine was technically implying that he wasn't interested on _any_ girl that didn't have large breasts.

But that did _not_ imply that she cared for that thought either.

.

.

It was the second time that she waited for her.

Her teacher specifically said that she would be coming to this tutoring lesson this time, and on point, too. But it really seemed like it was a repetition of the day before yesterday, and she certainly did not want that. The librarian that stays after school for a few hours might start to question her about why she constantly comes in to the library to wait for somebody and then just leave half an hour later because they never showed up. It was all too embarrassing.

As she killed her time by tapping her fingers on the large table, her head perked up in surprise once she suddenly heard a bag drop onto the floor right across the table. When she looked up at the anonymous, her eyes narrowed at seeing someone that she had not expected to see at all.

"Do you need something?" Mai asked, thoroughly confused to why Aomine randomly decided to sit in front of her. She thought that it was so impossible to have him as the person she is supposed to tutor that she expected that he was only bugging her—all except _that_. But, as she thought about it more scrupulously, it somehow made sense. Aomine had poor grades, skipped and slept through class, or simply avoided coming to school entirely.

Mai watched his eyes narrow, and a slight hint of amusement crept upon his deep blue eyes, which slightly confused her. What was so humorous about her mere curiosity?

"What does it look like to you?" Aomine responded, his manner was fairly voiced quite rudely, causing her to faintly flinch in reaction. "Tutoring."

_Oh._

To all the times that her teacher referred to the student as a male, Mai failed to differ her mentioning properly. Truth be told, Mai did not want to tutor him—she really didn't. But she was left without a choice, and she really wanted to complete her volunteering hours as soon as possible. However, she is beginning to question her goals.

Mai found her leg beginning to shake in nervousness, totally not wanting to tutor a guy that she found just a bit _too_ intimidating. Moreover, her mind began to go back to today's lunch period and how he hardheartedly rejected the poor girl so easily just for _one_ sole reason.

"Okay," Mai bluntly said, her mind completely blank.

And somehow, she _attempted_ to hide her flat chest as she began to be wordlessly intimidated by the tall student sitting just across from her.

* * *

**Note:** I apologize in advance if this chapter starts out slow, but it's just to finally set off this story. This is also my first try on a KNB fanfiction, so I would really appreciate some reviews concerning if they are on character or not. Thank you!


	2. Tutoring

**Tutoring Calls**

**2.**

* * *

Mai wasn't sure to why she felt this way around him, and the feeling was _not_ positive or neutral. Her biggest guess to the reason of the origin of her uneasiness would be Aomine's general expression that he always had on his face. It seemed as if he always had something to be aggravated at, and she presumes that it _mainly_ involved the tutoring lessons right now.

Her own personality almost annoyed her, in view of the fact that she over thinks things just a bit too much. Mai wasn't bothered by her own appearance, and she definitely didn't mind having a flat chest, but when _Aomine_ is around, it now feels like she is wordlessly getting judged by him.

Most of all, she thought that the person she was going to tutor would be a girl!

"Stop staring at me," his deep voice interrupted her trail of thoughts, and immediately made her feel embarrassed to have been actually caught _accidentally_ staring at him. Mai definitely didn't want him to think that she is one of _those_ type of girls, but really, it was simply just her mind's fault for over thinking everything again.

Mai in all probability exaggerated when she thought that the _whole_ group of girls fancied Aomine. Truthfully, there's probably just one person that crushes on the tall basketball player in her class, and the rest of them simply hearsay to one another. Most of them are quite frightened of Aomine's attitude; his usual frown and bad-mannered personality did not help.

Mai shook her head as her cheeks began to glow a light shade of red, completely mortified by every time she recapped what happened just a few moments ago. But, this did not overwhelm the fact that he is reasonably impolite to her—or _probably_ to anyone in general. A word that would definitely describe him is that he simply is too overconfident of himself.

For a second, she was almost going to comment about his absence on their planned lesson two days ago, but felt too hesitant to vocally say it out loud.

"Well," Mai verbalized as she started to open her binder. "You are here for math facilitation, so what's troubling you?" She couldn't proceed the tutoring lesson without actually knowing what he is having difficulties on in any case.

Aomine granted her a short glance through his murky blue eyes, clearly screening his boredom towards this dreary tutoring lesson, something that Mai somehow could understand. School wasn't something that she really enjoyed when it came to educational subjects, but she tried to do them with the best of her ability simply because she wants to be accepted into a good university in the future.

"I don't know," he plainly answered, mumbling, his chin dispassionately resting on his hand. "Everything."

_At least he is somewhat cooperating._

Perhaps if he actually cared, actually attended school, or conceivably paid attention to his classes, maybe he wouldn't be in this position. Mai only suspected that Aomine has just simply fallen behind on homework and evidently doesn't know what is going on during the following lessons that proceeded after the other.

"If that's the case then, why don't we take a look at the first lessons of the unit?" Mai offered, although not expecting much of an answer from him nevertheless. She guessed he was less talkative when it involved schoolwork or…mathematics.

"Hm," Aomine answered, and somehow Mai could perceive the displeasure in his voice. Nonetheless, she took it as a yes.

Forthrightly, Mai didn't even know if this was a good idea after all. Aomine should appreciate the fact that his teacher is worried about him and pushes him to get a tutor, which will definitely facilitate his difficulties with math equations. But, Mai was concerned nonetheless; he will probably not be paying attention at all.

When she flipped her binder open, Mai began to browse through the various lessons that her class has gone through since school started. The complexity of the equations and the amount of variables will most likely confuse him, considering the fact that he has not paid that much attention to the lessons after all. Mai positively assumes that Aomine at _least_ understood one math concept on this unit.

"Okay," Mai started to speak as she turned her binder towards Aomine so that he could vividly see what she is trying—or _going_ to explain. "Lets start with the basics. To find the slo—"

"Oi," Aomine interrupted her as his eyes were looking at anything _but_ her binder. "What the _hell_ are ya doing?" His frown deepened as he stared at her down.

Mai creased her eyebrows in confusion; she had no idea what Aomine was talking about. Most of all, she felt slightly insulted to see that he wasn't paying attention at all. But truthfully, she didn't expect much from him in the first place.

But when she finally realized what he was talking about, a deep shade of red crept upon her cheeks yet _again_. Mai felt…stupid to find her arm positioned that way across her chest. What in the world was she doing? It seemed as if she was trying to hide something, which was _clearly_ located atop of her almost non-existent breasts, and Aomine was quick to notice that.

_Damn him._

Who knew that Aomine could be so observant when he wanted to? She presumed that he probably only pays attention to things that caught his attention whether it was a positive or negative thing. It was also noticeable that schoolwork was not one of them.

"N-Nothing," Mai stuttered in pure embarrassment as she quickly retrieved her arm back onto her side.

It was probably her fault.

She shouldn't have over exaggerated at the thought of judgment. Mai subconsciously pulled one of her arms and placed it atop of her chest in attempt of avoiding Aomine's gaze, which would doubtlessly judge the size of her breasts. She didn't know why she cared about his judgment, but it was probably to avoid risking embarrassment, something that _definitely_ did not work out. It ended up probably worse than the worst-case scenario.

"If ya think I was going to look at your flat chest in the first place," Aomine began, his grin only causing her to be even more intimidated than before. "I'm not. It isn't worth looking."

Mai felt stupid.

She was a human after all, and sometimes she hated being one. Mai wanted to be invisible when it came to Aomine; she wanted to be unidentified and nameless to him. It just appeared that her pursuit for those volunteering hours wasn't as easy as she previously anticipated.

What was she supposed to say?

"I wasn't—"

"Save it," he said. "'Am not at all interested."

_Déjà vu._

That's exactly what she was experiencing on this very moment. A person with silky red chair blurred into her mind, the expression of said person completely humiliated and disappointed as she heard those similar words come out of the basketball player's lips, and that event happened just yesterday.

Why is he so difficult?

Mai gulped down the urge to continue her sentence, but knowing how stubborn Aomine was, she successfully resisted. It was probably a good idea to avoid the subject for the rest of the tutoring lesson anyway, but she immediately realized how discouraged she felt to continue.

Aomine didn't feel as amused anymore, and lazily rested his elbow on the table and used its hand to rest his chin upon it again. To him it might not be awkward, but to Mai, the whole room seemed to have an awkward tension in a way that made her body feel pressured.

At least she should be glad that he doesn't really care about this circumstance as much as she does.

"Anyway," Mai slowly said in an awfully hesitant tone. "Do you want to know how to find the intersection of two correlations?" She asked, obviously trying to change the subject, which was unquestionably causing the anomalous atmosphere.

His eyes slowing turned towards hers, clearly conveying a message. He didn't want to be here at all.

"Nah," he responded.

_Why is he making things so complicated without even trying?_

Mai absolutely did not want to do this anymore. She was definitely scratching off the choice of becoming a teacher when she is older. To put it simply, she hated dealing with people like Aomine. It was too troublesome for her to handle. In addition, she clearly was too much of a coward to stand up for herself when it came to _him_.

To force someone like Aomine to do schoolwork was definitely challenging. Mai is nothing but surprised that her teacher even managed to get him to attend this tutoring lesson. Still, she preferred having Aomine skip them, she concluded.

Her cheeks were still burning red, and Mai failed to cease it down. She was too uncomfortable and embarrassed.

"You know," he began to speak as he sighed in boredom, "I'm leaving."

By some means, his words were what awoke her from her almost permanent speechlessness. With her still-blushing cheeks, she immediately said, exclaiming, "Wait!" Her arm shot out onto the table as her blue eyes widened in astonishment. They were barely ten minutes into the lesson! Ten minutes of volunteering is definitely not even near sufficient or okay. "We haven't even started our lesson!"

"You kinda bore me," he responded in a rather monotone voice.

As she nervously watched her classmate pick up his schoolbag from the floor, she stated, "I never really thought that math lessons would be fun in the first place!"

Mai was definitely freaking out.

What the _hell_ was she supposed to say to her teacher tomorrow?

By now, Aomine deepened his frown. Mai was pushing him just a bit too much for his lousy attitude to take.

"_Shut up."_

His unkind tone and idiom clearly expressed how short his temper was. Mai quickly pressed her lips together and lowered her arm as her eyes softened. She felt completely trapped. Was it that her teacher secretly disliked her? Or perhaps trusted her that her tutoring skills would be the reason why Daiki Aomine would pass the math test next Friday?

_Nah._

It was probably the first one.

.

.

She really didn't look forward to tutoring Aomine again. When she signed up to become a tutor, the requirement did not specify that she would have to face someone like him! It was completely outrageous to think that tutoring Daiki Aomine would actually work out simply because he doesn't listen to her.

"Etsuyo-sensei," Mai spoke as she stood in front of her teacher's desk. Her sensei slowly perked her head up from the countless amount of paperwork that she guessed it was unmarked assignments.

"Yes, Oita-san?"

As she slightly looked away from her teacher and played with her fingers, she said, "Is there any way I could have another person to tutor?" Her pleading eyes shifted back to her teacher's, undoubtedly expressing her distress. _"Please?"_

Her teacher blinked a few times before frowning at her student's odd behavior. But as she considered what exactly Mai was asked her, it was only obvious that it was Aomine's fault to make her feel like this way.

"Is there a relative reason to why you are asking this?"

"I…I don't like him," Mai quickly responded truthfully, voice confident. It was completely clear that she disliked Aomine. "Just please _try_ and see if there is someone else that can take my spot."

The way her voice sounded caused her teacher to pity her. She knew it would be difficult to tutor someone like Aomine, but that was why she specifically assigned Mai to become Aomine's tutor. Overall, she just felt quite disappointed that she had given up so soon. Mai was the type of student to push herself and extend her limits, and so Etsuyo hoped that she could do the same but to someone else instead.

Sighing, her teacher said, "Oita-san, I understand your reasoning. Aomine is quite a… _complex_ student to deal with, but at the moment I do not know if I am able to find replacement right now." Mai didn't like where this conversation was going. If anything, she would of preferred to not having said anything at all. "Just give it a little time. And if possible, I can _try_ and find an alternate."

Mai's blue eyes immediately jolted up in cheerfulness and hope. Although it is quite obvious that it is just a mere possibility, she still had some hope.

It wasn't that she despised Aomine to the point she wanted to resign herself to someone else—well, that was a slight portion of it. She did not _despise_ him; to put it simply, Aomine did not meet the standards that Mai beheld when it came to humans in general. Simply, he was just too full of himself.

"Ah, thank you, Etsuyo-sensei!" Mai's voice significantly changed into a positive tone of voice. "I'll go back to my seat now."

But right when she turned around, the first thing that she saw was the person who sits behind her seat on the far back of the classroom, and it almost instantly caused her to have a rush of blood flow into her cheeks. Yesterday's events were too embarrassing. They were _so_ discomforting that she would become embarrassed all over again just by thinking about it.

Aomine was surprisingly on time for school this time—this strange action happens a few or just a couple of times a week. He appeared to be uninterestedly looking out the window with his chin resting on his hand, an act that has become a habit to him every time he is fatigued, bored, or both.

Now that she thinks about it, she doesn't believe that Aomine even knows her name in the first place. Her teacher might of mentioned it to him, but knowing how Aomine's mind worked, he had probably not listened or simply had forgotten. If anything, he wouldn't even know who she was just by hearing her name.

His whole figure was relatively noticeable when she was in front of the class. His odd hair color and distinctly darker skin than her other classmate's made his appearance stand out. Not to mention his height—his height was what made him tremendously visible comparing to others.

Mai then watched as his gaze slowly turned towards her, seeing as she, too, was fairly conspicuous since she was in front of the classroom. And even if she moved away from the spot, Aomine still watched her walk up towards her desk—a view that _seemed_ as if she was trying to walk up to _him_.

And then he smirked.

It was quite obvious to why he implemented his prominent curve upon his lips. Mai was overly blushing a bit _too_ much. Her gaze was trying to search a safe getaway that would make her gape seem natural, and at the same time trying to avoid his gaze, too.

When she rapidly sat down on her assigned seat and did not even try too look back just to see if his smirk had worn off, her blush decreased little by little, but did not completely cease way.

And the one thing that she evidently noticed from him during class though would be his large legs under her chair once again.

* * *

**Note:** It is a bit shorter than last chapter's, I do apologize for that. Anyway, thank you to the ones who favorited and followed! And special thanks to _XxWhiteKeysxX _for reviewing! Again, your opinions on this chapter would be lovely :-)

Anyway, I do have a few **important** questions to ask: do you like the lengths of my chapters? If not, is it because it is too long or too short? Also, is the amount of detail I put into them a bit too much or okay? Any of your opinions will influence the following chapters to come.


	3. Bribery

**Note:** I didn't want this chapter to come in so late, but I skied for six hours yesterday and I kind of died to be honest. I had a three-hour nap but clearly it wasn't sufficient for me. I might end up rewriting the last bit of this chapter because I found it quite awfully written due to my lack of will to write at the moment.

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke on any way, shape, or form; all rights go to Fujimaki Tadatoshi. I only own my OC(s).**_

* * *

**Tutoring Calls**

**3.**

* * *

She was still embarrassed.

Mai was more than glad that the sense of humiliation has been slowly diminishing within her heart as time went by though—but for her, a minute was an eternity. Having Aomine sitting right behind her did not help either, and she found herself mentally trapped in a way that made her dread the tutoring lessons by every time she thought about it.

All the same, she was relieved that tomorrow was Friday.

While her social skills with other students are pretty low, Mai didn't have something to really look forward to during the weekends. As an ordinary adolescent, she stayed up later than usual and yet viewed it as additional time to catch up on schoolwork that she didn't understand during the week.

Scandalously enough, Mai didn't hangout with Hana outside of school all that often. They did not walk each other home, too, but for particular reasons: they didn't live close enough.

It was the last class of the day, and frankly, all Mai wanted was to get back home.

"Oi_._"

Mai was succumbed to her subconscious, utterly ignoring what was happening in her surroundings. This wasn't normal of her to not be paying attention in class, but seeing as she already knew the material, the burden was less weighing. To be thorough, Mai had trouble falling asleep last night, and so it earned her quite the noticeable bags under her eyes.

Her hearing problems didn't ease her miscomprehension of the subtle whisper either, so it modestly seemed like she was ignoring the voice.

"_Hey._"

His voice was louder, almost to the volume of normal speech. As he viewed her ignorance quite maddening, it only made his tone sound harsher as he frowned once again—something that could be considered as a habit of his to do everyday.

But this time, Mai did hear him. There was no way that she could not recognize his deep, husky voice despite the fact that she doesn't hear him speak that much in class. But given that she had experienced a tutoring lesson—a ten-minute lesson to be exact—with Aomine, she was allowed to say that she could differ his voice from the others.

Did she want to look back though?

No. But her personality made her hesitate on her actions, Mai hated ignoring people even if they are rude, inappropriate, or indecorous; she found it as a chance to forgive and to forget, but at times, her views are fairly flawed.

Her blushing cheeks never ceased away after all, and she did not want to risk another possibility of Aomine thinking that she liked him. It sounded completely absurd and incomprehensible. She just hoped that Aomine was aware that 'blushing' can occur without having a crush on somebody.

Unsurprisingly, Aomine exceeded his level of patience—which was utterly close to none. Mai was too indecisive, and apparently the impatient basketball player did not have time to wait for a classmate to _finally_ conclude their inner-dilemma.

And so, he insensitively kicked the bottom of her seat, almost startling her to death.

Oh, she really despised having his legs under her chair.

"What the—" She stopped and quickly looked at her surroundings to see if anyone noticed her sudden jolt. After doing so, she creased her eyebrows in annoyance and turned herself around to face Aomine, and whisper-shouted, saying, "_What is it?_"

To be ingenuous, Mai was surprised of her tone towards him. But she knew that she was not _that_ valorous, especially when she is face to face with Aomine. His presence was too intimidating for her—his figure no less. At times, she wondered if other students (or people in general) felt the same way.

"Are ya _failingly_ trying to ignore me?" Aomine teased as he smirked away, although there was a hint of irritation still playing on his tone. His arms seemed to be lazily resting on his desk, and she noticed that he hasn't even opened his book just yet.

She wasn't really _intentionally_ ignoring him on the first place.

It was also not her fault that her parents were still too busy to get her hearing aid fixed, and that is why it annoyed her when people think that she is ignoring them—although on this case, she was, indeed, _partially_ ignoring him, but not deliberately. However, that was only because she was hesitant; she didn't know if he was going to tease her for whatever she had done while he was, unfortunately, there to witness.

"No," Mai denied.

Mai was mad at him, although it did not seem like it. She was mad that Aomine carelessly left the tutoring lesson just because he wanted to. It only made her worry about the outcome of his test results in less than a couple of weeks. If her teacher were to find out that Mai isn't doing her job, she will probably not let her tutor anymore—or perhaps she is just exaggerating to some degree.

"I'm not going to that lesson today," he suddenly changed the subject in an uninterested tone. But before Mai could say anything, he overlapped her speed of speech and continued, saying, "You're welcome."

She left herself blink a few times before processing what he had just said.

_You're welcome?_

The add-on was completely irrelevant, and it almost sounded as if he was trying to be sarcastic, but his tone of voice said otherwise. This was _why_ she disliked Aomine, he completely thinks that he is able to do whatever he wanted, and as far as she knew, it irritated her quite a bit despite her composed nature.

But then she wondered: why wouldn't he attend today's lesson?

So far, they have wasted _almost_ three lessons on their first week. The first one was a complete failure; Aomine just left her to think that he was going to show up in the next thirty minutes. The second trial was a lot better—but it ended up on humiliation and, of course, he left far too early. And now he is saying that he won't be attending today's lesson as well? The only thing she felt glad about those news is that she wouldn't be waiting in the library like a complete idiot this time!

"Why not?" She asked, and then added, "And why did you say 'you're welcome'?"

"I have basketball practice," Aomine explained, and just by hearing his reasoning shocked Mai the most. At first, she suspected that he would respond with something straightforward as in 'I'd rather sleep' or some other absurd excuse, but his explanation was quite fair. Frankly, she wasn't aware that he was in the basketball team at all, but his height could be clear evidence that he is in the team after all. "And wouldn't it be better to not have you to be ridiculously waiting for me like last time? Then, you're welcome."

But the fact is: Mai wasn't aware that Aomine never—or at least, barely—showed up to his basketball practices. He observed that he did not need them anymore; he is a strong player even without having to weekly practice with his other teammates.

"You are very uncouth, you know that, right?"

Her comment was simply directed towards his last explanation, which she found quite ill mannered of him despite the fact that it _is_ his personality in spite of everything. The fact that he viciously reminds her of how idiotic she must have had looked at the library during their first lesson was just pure lunacy.

"And you are really annoying."

Mai pressed her lips together and resisted herself from another comeback, which will probably just end up on angering Aomine even further, and outspokenly, she didn't want to anger him. It was obvious and understandable that she _preferred_ to have him annoyed rather than angry.

All she did was just turn around and focus back on her work. And almost instantly, she felt quite relieved.

.

.

_Sleep._

Mai had been yearning for sleep for hours. Right when she woke up this morning, she knew that she didn't receive enough sleep last night. Although she was only focusing on the regular path that would take her home, _just_ after she exists out of the school she could easily see the flash of dark blue hair and tanned skin walking on the sidewalk to who knows where.

This sight completely distracted her from what she was previously focusing on, but the fact that Aomine was not heading over to the gymnasium puzzled her. But of course, it would be illogical of her to believe everything Aomine blurted out of his mouth, in all truthfulness.

_He will never pass this test. Not this way._

Mai has been slowly losing hope on Aomine. She is absolutely unable to predict the outcomes of each tutoring lesson anymore. One day he doesn't show up at all, and on the next day he does but leaves near the beginning. How is _she_ going to be capable of making _Aomine_ focus on her lecturing?

To some extent, when Aomine called her annoying, it really bothered her.

It didn't matter who calls her such names, it will aggravate her mind at any rate. What's more, no one should mind other people calling them such names for no particular reason. Mai is trying to _help_ him, but he rather views it as bothersome.

Following her instincts, Mai decided to follow him.

She probably looked outlandish, seeing as she is trying to light step her way behind Aomine who had his hands deep into the pockets of his cardigan. Mai didn't exactly know how following him would do any good, but she just wanted to see how much of a liar he was.

When they finally reached a turn around the block, Mai did not expect Aomine waiting for her to take the same turn as he did just a minute ago. By the look of his expression, there was no doubt that he was quite ticked off, and it only made him think of her as even _more_ annoying than he previously judged.

"Are ya following me?" Aomine asked, his lips slightly forming the eminent smirk of his. "I told you I ain't interested."

If Mai said no, then she would be completely lying. In addition, she would be sounding like an absolute hypocrite. But the fact that he kept assuming that Mai had affectionate thoughts about him bugged her, for all she is trying to do is help him.

She thoroughly did not expect Aomine to pop out on the corner of a block waiting for her to turn on the same way. Mai never took this way to get home, and if she did then she would at least see Aomine from time to time. Thus, it was clear that there was a different motive in her mind—stalking him.

"Why are you not attending the basketball practice?" Mai accused as her neck slightly tilted up to meet his sharp eyes. She crossed her arms and said, "You are probably missing out a lot of essential things there right now!"

"I don't need practice," Aomine easily responded, shooting her a glare.

"And why is that?" Mai pushed. "Everybody needs practice!"

"_No,_" he denied. "The only one who can beat me, is me," he said. "So _don't_ bother me about attending practice as well_._"

Aomine's voice sounded almost venomous to her malfunctioning ears. It was such a nuisance to him—having to deal with someone else pushing him to attend the worthless basketball practices that, according to him, he did not need.

"You are very arrogant, that's what you are."

Mai was surprised of her sudden outburst. Although the small space that they shared between each other was quite vexing and inconvenient, there were little tints of pink on her cheeks—but it still existed nonetheless. She could tell that she always seemed to irritate Aomine one way or another, but she really didn't heed. It was now her duty to make Aomine pass this math test, but seeing as he had other plans before him she would let this circumstance pass by.

"Or maybe you're just very ignorant, don't ya think?" Aomine shot back, and almost instantly Mai didn't know what else to say. She has obviously never seen him play basketball, but she always thought that if someone always kept practicing even if they reached their limit, it could end up being very rewarding. "Leave me alone."

Just when he was turning around to resume his way home, Mai followed her instincts and grabbed his wrist.

"Wait!"

A deeper shade of red flashed on her pale cheeks as she quickly realized what she had done. The only reason she did so was to stop him since she knows that Aomine will not listen to her even if she begged—perhaps, that assumption _could_ be tested.

Mai couldn't come up with a reason to why she tries to help him when she could easily let him go to the path of failing his math test yet again. But she knew that he would not pass mathematics if he didn't study or at least have his homework done daily. On this case, Aomine is the ignorant one.

Even so, she didn't want to force him into tutoring today. Mai wanted him to go to his practice, for she felt bad that his teammates would have to continue without him. Practicing with everybody present is very essential to build up on teamwork and tactics.

"I'll buy you food after practice," Mai offered, quickly letting go of his wrist once he slightly looked back. Aomine didn't seem to be amused at all, although the thought of getting free dinner conceivably could make the trick. "That is, if you are willing to postpone your nap and practice with your team."

Sometimes, Mai thought that she was _too_ generous to people. Always willing to help others, there was no doubt her teacher knew exactly why she wanted Mai to tutor Aomine. But even the best in academics always had a challenge that they somehow must overcome. To Mai, it was Aomine.

Aomine turned around in order to fully face her, and it bugged her that their height difference always caused her neck to stiffen if she looked up at him for long periods of time. Mai was reasonably tall for a female, but their height dissimilarity was up to six inches.

Before he would make another smart comment, Mai quickly added, saying, "No, my intentions are _not_ because 'I'm interested'—that's because I am not."

"I told you, I _don't_ need practice."

Mai couldn't judge him. She didn't know how good Aomine was at basketball, but seeing as how arrogant he is being then to some extent, he must be good. Still, only showing up to matches just made Aomine _look_ like he doesn't care about basketball, and just participated to crush a player's will to play instead.

"Why can't you accept a generous offer?" She asked, sighing as she loosened her arms from its crossed position and placed them on each side of her body. "I'll buy you your favorite food if you go," she repeated, although precisely adding more detail into her offer. "It's either that or we'll continue with our tutoring lesson scheduled today."

Aomine paused and speculated her to see if she was lying. There was no way that he would be so gullible to someone as innocent as her. But really, it would be quite unintelligent of her to trick him either way, obviously because she will see him on the next day in class.

She didn't like the way he looked at her, in view of the fact that she easily gets too intimidated by people. His tall and muscled figure undoubtedly overpowering hers simply made it worse.

He sighed as his hand ran through his short hair and said, his deep voice evident, "Fine." Truthfully, he didn't want to gain detention for skipping again, it was either getting free food or get help with mathematics. "Buy me a Teriyaki burger and you've got yourself a deal."

Aomine walked past Mai without giving her a second glance, as he assumed that she would be trailing behind him nonetheless.

Perhaps if he hadn't forgotten his lunch at home, he would of promptly rejected Mai's offer without hesitation. Detention just meant sleep, anyway.

.

.

Mai didn't want to go into the gym with Aomine, or else it would be awkward for her. His teammates would be wondering why she is accompanying him, too. So, she stopped following him once he entered the doors of the gym and from time to time peeked through the small window to see how it was going.

Although it did not seem like it, Mai felt as if she had accomplished something. When she watched Aomine walk in, it seemed as if their teammates were slightly surprised that he unexpectedly came to attend practice.

And yet, she was astonished herself.

It was her first time watching him play basketball—and it was true that there was a _reason_ behind his pure arrogance when it came to that sport. When Aomine took possession of the ball, she noticed how he made the act of dribbling a ball be so easy; his dribbles were swift, but his dunks were what impressed her the most.

Even when she thought about it, there was no way she could _ever_ do such thing.

Frankly, she didn't want to be here, seeing as she is sitting on the floor beside the gym doors just to wait for Aomine to finish his basketball practice. The basketball team only started practicing about twenty minutes ago, and she found herself wondering what else to do. If she watched them play for too long, someone will eventually see a head peaking through the window and might end up startling them somehow.

So, she decided to buy the burger that he wanted already. She didn't really want to be going into a restaurant with Aomine after practice for many reasons.

.

.

Buying the Teriyaki burger didn't took as long as Mai previously anticipated, much to her dismay. However, she was relieved that the practice was close to conclusion, and Mai desperately wanted to get back home. She didn't necessarily like to be walking when the sky goes dark, so she didn't want the practice to take so long.

She was still tired all the same.

It wasn't essentially her fault that she experienced insomnia last night, and it took all of her strength to not have fallen asleep during class. This wasn't her reputation around school—not that anyone knew about her anyway. Mai was almost non-existent, and only very few would ever remember her day after day.

And so, she fell asleep.

.

.

"Wake up."

They had finally finished their basketball practice, and Mai fell asleep through quite a portion of it. Right when she closed her eyes she felt as if she was in pure relief, and the weight underneath her eyes slowly vanished as her mind slowly succumbed to a typical afternoon nap—except, she fell asleep with her back resting on the wall along with her body laying on the floor.

Aomine didn't have time to wait for her to willingly wake up. Satsuki will eventually come out to walk home with him and he certainly didn't want to hear his childhood friend's blabbering about Mai and why she was here on the first place. In addition, he had skipped the clean up after practice, and he certainly didn't want to get bothered by it at all.

Frowning, he crunched down to her eye level and repeated the same words, but louder this time, "_Wake up._"

This was just another repetition of today's earlier events. But Aomine could tell she was still fast asleep and was not ignoring him. Mai only shifted closer to the corner of the wall, completely unaware of what was happening to her surroundings.

Sighing in impatience, Aomine, instead of shaking her awake, brought his hand closer to her face and gripped onto the hairclip, which was clearly sustaining her long bangs from falling on to her face, and pulled it out of her hair. Her reaction to the sudden foreign feeling on her face did not come out quickly, but as a substitute, her response was carried out fairly leisured.

Mai's blue eyes fluttered open, and for a moment she could only see a blurred figure in front of her—but it didn't take long for her to recognize who it was. "What—Oh," she said, suddenly realizing what was happening. Seeing as she has just come out of a relaxing nap, her mind had forgotten the events that preceded the current time. "Sorry," she said as she rubbed her eyes; Mai didn't wear make-up, thus, she deliberately could rub her eyes without hesitation. "I kind of fell asleep." She laughed slightly.

"No shit," Aomine cursed without any further thought. This classmate of his might be his tutor, but her obvious remarks made her seem to be dumber than him.

"Did you take my hairclip out of my hair?" Mai asked, frowning as she saw the small hairclip in one of Aomine's large hands.

"Why do ya wear one anyway?" He asked, totally ignoring her question. Mai hesitantly pulled out her hand to get her hairclip back, and when his hand slightly brushed against hers she could easily feel how hard they have become through years of continuously playing basketball.

"My hair gets into my face and it's quite irritating," Mai responded as she placed the hairclip back to place. After doing so, she pulled herself up, seeing as Aomine has already done so, too.

"You could use your ears."

It wasn't a question, but a simple observation. It was a fairly reasonable suggestion, but since her bangs were—and always were—located on her right side, she couldn't exactly place them behind her right ear since that was where her hearing aid was placed: behind her right ear. Switching where her bangs were parted to seemed quite unfamiliar for her, and thus, found the hairclip reasonably reassuring.

"I prefer not," she said, trying to avoid the subject of her hearing aid. Mai wasn't exactly embarrassed of being deaf, but she had a preference of being reserved to subjects such as her deafness. "Aomine, what are you—" Mai abruptly said, but then paused as she watched him take the hairclip out of her face yet _again_. "What, what was that for?!"

Although it was barely noticeable, Mai observed that Aomine's shoulders vaguely shrugged as a response to her questioning. As she scrutinized him carefully, she noticed that he had already changed back to the typical student uniform for Tōō. Furthermore, Aomine had his free hand sucked into his pocket once again.

"Did ya buy it?" He asked, slightly raising one of his eyebrows.

Before she would respond, Mai, annoyed, took the hairclip back from him, which he really didn't really care. "Don't do that again, please," she said as she placed the hairclip back into place, and wordlessly hoped that he wouldn't take it out again just to bug her.

"Do I have to repeat myself again?" Aomine asked, although his tone made it sound it like a statement. He is simply growing more and more aggravated at the fact that he always seems to have to repeat himself when he is speaking to her.

"I did," Mai said as she zipped her bag open and then held out the paper bag that contained the Teriyaki burger that Aomine wanted—and apparently was his favorite food, too. "Here."

Aomine promptly grabbed it from her and looked inside, and said, "Hm, thanks."

Somehow, his response sparkled an idea into her mind—something that _shouldn't_ be considered as an idea, given that it was a typical thing to do. But in Aomine's case, it was like an open door for Mai.

"_You're welcome_."

He eyed her quite slowly, murky blue eyes locking with a clearer shade of the same color. "Tch," he said as he turned around to _finally_ walk out of school. Aomine was far from planning on attending a basketball practice, today no less, but at least he selfishly earned himself his favorite food free for doing what he was supposed to do.

Mai was secretly hoping that he would show up to the next tutoring lesson that he desperately needed, which will happen Monday afternoon of next week.

But there was a high probability that he won't.

* * *

**Note: **Reviews would be lovely :-)


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